In the past when it has been desired to clean or otherwise manicure various surfaces, such as the grass surfaces comprising golf greens, it has been necessary to employ various time-consuming and energy-wasting devices, which have been employed manually by single individuals. Generally, these have included various green whips, which have been swung back and forth through the grass adjacent the ground and parallel thereto. Generally bamboo poles, or similar such devices, have been used. These poles or rods, however, aside from being very fragile, and wearing out and requiring replacement quite often, have also required the tiresome and lengthy whipping thereof back and forth across the surface manually, furthermore resulting in the nonuniform manicuring of these greens.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,748,354 to Laing, teaches a metallic greens whip including a number of flexible metal rods of different lengths attached to a handle. The use of such a metallic whip for removing dew and worm-casts from golf greens, aside from being time-consuming and difficult, also results in substantial damage to the greens where careful manicuring is highly desirable.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,694,880, to Artese et al discloses a putting green sweeper including a pair of resilient snake wires attached to a handle, and coil springs thereabout, as well as means for maintaining the snake wires apart. Thus, again, the sweeper is whipped back and forth across the green, in a manner such as the bamboo poles previously employed. Again, this device suffers from all the above-noted deficiencies, including potentially serious damage to the greens.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,730,739, to Artese et al, discloses a sweeper including a number of elongated resilient strips and coil springs thereabout. The strips may thus be flexed in one direction only, in order to whip the green surface. Again, this device suffers from all of the deficiencies noted above. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 1,524,421, to Brady, discloses a sand sand green scraper for golf links, including a blade and a clip carried thereon and adapted to engage the head of a golf club. This device is therefore used in the manner such as a normal broom, and therefore while it does not act as the whips described above, it is particularly slow and time consuming in use, and again results in non-uniform manicuring of such greens.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a sweeper which overcomes these disadvantages of the prior art sweepers.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a sweeper for cleaning various surfaces, such as golf greens, which is durable, can be easily employed by a single individual, and which results in the fast and tireless cleaning of such surfaces in highly uniform manner.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such sweepers which, while uniformly cleaning the surfaces, does not damage them in any way.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for sweeping such surfaces, such as golf greens, in a relatively short period of time, and without damaging the surfaces.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for sweeping and cleaning such surfaces, such as golf greens, which can be accomplished from a vehicle, such as a golf cart, without requiring manual whipping or sweeping of the surfaces.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent during the course of the following description.